The morning after celebrating victory and Alexander's elevation to knighthood, the duke left for his capital and was subsequently summoned by the king. Such a hasty departure of the main actor created certain problems. First of all, the newly minted knight Alexander Blood couldn't swear vassal allegiance. Why?
Some local intricacies could be considered the golden fund of human folly. Who knighted the vampire knights? The duke did! Hence His Excellency had to decide to whom the knight would swear vassal allegiance. And for half a year now, the designated knight has been living on Baron Savoyardi's land without obeying anyone.
Naturally, unofficially, the men quickly agreed among themselves that Alexander considered the baron his lord until further orders from the duke. Within their circle, the vampires also swiftly resolved all external organizational matters. Eugene was appointed as the "steward" of his lordship, Knight Blood, and Constantine became the new "elder" of the free village of Lesnaya, right in the midst of which they began constructing Castle Blood.
Locals were shocked by such upheavals in their accustomed way of life, but after toasting with these strange mages who settled in the forest, they quickly forgot about them, deciding that these gentlemen mages were simply luxuriating in their comfort.
Another, much more serious problem arose with the bandits. The duke's retinue, remaining in the province after the battle, didn't even number three hundred fighters. Retinues of some barons and knights perished in full with them, while other landowners had enough soldiers only to guard their castles. Units sent to the royal army hadn't returned for the winter yet.
Wild people quickly sensed they could seize their luck by the tail and began robbing caravans traveling along the Great Northern Road, in that stretch between the cities of Savoyardi and Kas. And there was nothing to be done about them yet. Merchants lamented and cursed but were forced to double, or even triple, the guard of their caravans.
And the caravans themselves! Vampires opened their mouths in astonishment at what was once such a quiet and peaceful road passing through the forest. As soon as the first frosts hit, an endless stream of goods began flowing along the road. In both directions! Non-stop! Northern mines sought to clear warehouses before the impending winter — gold, silver, mithril, emeralds, and finally, priceless lunar silver were being transported to Savoyardi.
From there, convoys of convicts, herds of cattle and sheep, wagons laden with grain and flour headed to the fortress-city. Everything necessary to keep the mines operational and produce output. Traffic jams occurred frequently on the road bridges.
The baron couldn't sleep at night, personally inspecting the guard in the city and driving the retinue at every sneeze. Huge material wealth lay in his city's warehouses, which the rampaging bandits made difficult to export. The baron kept his word and increased the size of the retinue, though the quality of soldiers was still too low. Yesterday's peasants, deciding to exchange the plow for the spear, still understood too little about their new profession.
The only success in hiring was the baron's signed contract with a new mage. The old mage, serving for more than fifteen years, perished on the bridge, and under the impression of the damage inflicted precisely by magic, they began to look for the strongest mage for the vacant position. They found one fairly quickly — a young girl, a graduate of the capital's magical academy.
Having managed not to tie herself to any contract during her six years of study, she herself applied to the castle seeking employment and signed a five-year contract as a battle mage of the retinue. To Baron Savoyardi's clever question about what such a girl was seeking in these parts, he received an answer about how she managed to graduate from the academy and still not have a personal contract.
It turns out she was the daughter of a wealthy merchant who could well afford her decent education. Now her father wanted to expand his business to the north of the kingdom, and he needed connections here. A daughter, a battle mage, in the city on the Great Northern Road, suited him perfectly for establishing such connections.
And although an air mage was not very suitable for these parts, compared to the old man Kyarvi who could only cast "fire arrows," albeit quickly and in large numbers, she seemed like a true goddess of magic, and her hiring became a great success for the baron.
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